Often Irreverent, Mostly Rational Blog for Fans of the Toronto Blue Jays. One Day, We'll Be Perfect.

Saturday, March 21, 2009

First day of spring means baseball, baby

I'm going to go on record right now and say that this has been one of the worst fucking winters of my life. Top five, for sure, and that's really saying something when you live in a city where -30 degrees is commonplace and simply means you need to zip your jacket up. -40 to -50? That shit is cold, man, and only an outrageous (and potentially baldfaced) liar will tell you that you "get used to it". You don't. Things freeze. It's painful. Not cool.

But that's all over for another year, my friends. Spring is in the air. Can you feel it? Can you? I can. Weather aside, the first day of spring means we are on the verge of some real baseball. What? Canada got eliminated good and early? You're dead to me, World Baseball Classic.

Spring training isn't just for the players - it's for the fans too, if my opinion counts for anything (that's rhetorical, smart guy). I keep up a ridiculous intensity for a 162 game season, and I need a good month of idle speculation and foaming at the mouth over stud prospects to ease me into this thing.

Speaking of foaming at the mouth over stud prospectsBrad Mills is making this team, and I think we need to check our expectations. We're talking about a 24 year old arm who has never, in "the scouts'" estimation, projected to be anything more than a back-end starter, who is on the verge of making the bigs after one and a half seasons of pro baseball.

I think, in time, Mills can exceed those expectations - he's got a pretty good arm, Cito loves his makeup, he doesn't get rattled, he's apparently a pretty intelligent dude, etc - but even if he doesn't, that's still OK, right? I mean, come the World Series Season of 2010 (leave me alone), we're looking at a rotation consisting of some combination of Halladay, McGowan, Marcum, Litsch, Cecil, and Mills, right?

And yes, I know Doc is entering that tenuous "extend or trade" portion of his contract, Marcum is coming off TJ, and McGowan's surgically repaired shoulder is already barking. I know these things, but I'm wilfully choosing to ignore them. Besides, that's what big Dave Purcey is for, right? RIGHT??

13 comments:

I still haven't seen someone who projects the Jays to win 75 actually give estimates for how many runs we'll score and allow, except BP who thought we'd be below .500 with a +60 run differential, which is clearly full of crap.

0C is where water (in the least salty solution possible) freezes. 0F is where water (in the most salty solution possible) freezes. When Fahrenheit was inventing his scale, it was a lot easier to saturate a solution of water with salt than to desalinate it. That said, using Fahrenheit nowadays makes about as much sense as using Runs as an individual statistic.

I think Clement just pitched his way off the roster today with his great effort aganist the Twins. Seriously dude gave up 9 runs(1 unearned) and he had 7 walks. I am not sure if I like the idea of Richmond on this staff though.

Is anyone out there watching this Korea and Japan game? This is some seriously awesome baseball. Do you think that Korea who broke his helmet on the SS's knee would have been fine with his team forfeiting a game with injuries?And the play by the Korean LF who actually plays first? I'm hoping this goes into extras.